A Reddit user said one of the closest calls he ever had happened around 2013, just outside downtown Baton Rouge, after he and his wife had been out for a Fourth of July celebration. According to his comment in the thread, it was about 2 a.m. and the two of them were walking home when he started noticing a man behind them. At first it was just enough to catch his attention. Then he realized the guy was not only staying behind them, but continuing to get closer and trying not to make it obvious whenever the poster looked back.
He wrote that the man kept tightening the distance a little at a time, and that was what started putting him on edge. From the way he told it, this was not some random pedestrian who happened to be taking the same route. The stranger was hanging onto them, trying to stay just subtle enough not to force a confrontation too early. The poster said he kept watching him and kept noticing the same pattern: every time he checked, the man was still there and still a little closer.
Then the whole thing snapped into a different gear. He said the man suddenly broke into a sprint toward them. That was the moment he drew his Glock 23. He did not describe any long warning or some drawn-out exchange. In his telling, the stranger was following, getting closer, and then running at them. Once that happened, the gun came out.
According to the post, the reaction was immediate. The man turned and ran the opposite direction. No shots were fired. The encounter ended there, with the threat breaking off as soon as the firearm appeared. But the way the commenter told it, the memory stuck because of how quickly the situation had moved from a bad feeling on a late-night walk to a man sprinting at him and his wife in the dark.
The story itself was simple but ugly in the way a lot of the most believable ones are. A husband and wife were walking home after a holiday celebration at 2 in the morning. A man behind them kept creeping closer while trying not to look obvious. Then he ran at them. The husband drew, and the man ran the other way before anything got worse.
What do you think — if someone kept shadowing you and your wife on a late-night walk and then suddenly broke into a sprint, would you have waited one more beat to see what he wanted, or figured the sprint was all you needed to know?
Original Reddit post: When was the closest time you’ve come to drawing?
